What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Dundonnell]

I already have the old Simax boxed set of Fartein Valen's four symphonies(Bergen Philharmonic-Aldo Ceccato) but I am investing in the new BIS series of which this is the second volume.

No matter how hard I try however I cannot warm to Valen's music Although I love most Scandinavian music and am told that Valen(like most Norwegian composers) was influenced by the landscapes of his native country I cannot understand or appreciate the dry, angular lines as in any way the product of such influences. There is certainly lyricism in Valen's sound world but it is a lyricism which wearies rather than entrances.

Others will respond differently no doubt.

[Harry]

Disc 5.
Fantasie, opus 17.
Fantasiestucke, opus 12.
Etuden after Paganinni, opus 3.
Jorg Demus, Piano.

Just wonderful music making.

[Homo Aestheticus]

[Catison]

Béla Bartók - String Quartet No. 6 (Takacs)
Dmitri Shostakovich - String Quartet No. 12 (Borodin)
Arnold Schoenberg - String Quartet No. 3 (Arditti)
Ludwig van Beethoven - String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132 (Guarneri)

Rediscovering these is wonderful, but I am especially anxious to hear Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart, truly one of the most beautiful things ever written.

[Keemun]

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (Solit/CSO, 1972)

[karlhenning]

Dérive 1 (1984) for six instruments (5'47)

I've got that disc, and Le marteau is fantastique;  but I haven't yet listened to the Dérives yet . . . .

[SonicMan46]

Luigi Boccherini. Quintets for Guitar and String Quartet, No. 1-3. Jean Pierre Jumez, Guitar. Dimov String Quartet.

Most of the people that have these recordings complain about them. The only smear on this impeccable box. Well they are in part correct.
These recordings where produced by Balkanton, and they did a good job, in terms of recording. The Dimov Quartet is playing well if not very adventurous. A blank interpretation of these otherwise fine works, whereby it must be said the guitarist is the greatest culprit in this project. This guy has no expression at all, and plays it like a first years student. So yeah, you need other recordings of these works. I will not play these two cd's again.

Hi Harry - believe that we've had this discussion before - the guitarist in this otherwise superb & CHEAP box set does disappoint - the other recordings that I own are w/ Pepe Romero + Iona Brown et al - excellent & also a great bargain! 

Still going through my recently acquired double-CD sets of the Sibelius Symphony cycle w/ Berglund - will do some comparison listening this weekend!


 

[Que]

No. 4

Q

[ChamberNut]

Beethoven

String Trio in D major, Op. 9/2

Zurich String Trio
Brilliant Classics

[karlhenning]

No. 4

Q

Half the time, that's my favorite Beethoven symphony!

[karlhenning]

Sergei Sergeyevich
Ode on the End of the War, Opus 105
USSR Radio & TV Large Symphony
Gennadi Rozhdestvensky

Wonderful mix of public, ceremonial piece, and a highly individual master at the height of his powers.

[karlhenning]

Sergei Sergeyevich
Symphony No. 5 in B-flat, Opus 100
USSR Radio & TV Large Symphony
Gennadi Rozhdestvensky

[Que]

A classic (LvB), though by now what still is a very fine transfer on Appian (APR), feels a bit outdated (1996)...
I need a new one - on Opus kura, not Naxos, mind!

Q

[hautbois]

From the 120th Anniversary series of the Concertgebouw, Kondrashin's Mendelssohn "Italian".

Finally, the symphony is making complete sense. The choice of tempi is magical. Such flow.

Howard

[Keemun]

Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony (Mariss Jansons/Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra)

[Homo Aestheticus]

Not as good as the The Royal Concertgebouw in 1970 under Eugen Jochum but still very fine.

[karlhenning]

Debussy
En blanc et noir
Béroff & Collard

First listen!

[Opus106]

I think it will be Brahms all the way tonight

Concerto for Violin and Cello
Oistrakh/Rostropovich/Cleveland SO/Szell

Sonata No. 1 for Piano and Cello
Serkin/Rostropovich

Piano Concerto No. 2
Barenboim/Philharmonia Orch./Barbirolli

[Opus106]

I think it will be Brahms all the way tonight

Concerto for Violin and Cello
Oistrakh/Rostropovich/Cleveland SO/Szell

From allmusic.com

Brahms wrote this work during the summer of 1887, and conducted the premiere himself on October 18 in Cologne

[emphasis mine]

Well, there's a coincidence!

[Moldyoldie]

Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 "Romantic"
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Wilhelm Furtwängler, cond.
MUSIC & ARTS (CD #1 of 5)
Anyone familiar with Furtwängler's inimitable performances of Beethoven's Ninth knows of his "way" with a slow movement.  The second movement of Bruckner's now quite popular Fourth Symphony is marked Andante quasi allegretto, but here takes on a different character with the conductor's constant deep probing, extended rests, and seemingly spontaneous rubato.  For this listener, it's probably the most memorable aspect of this performance which otherwise eschews much of what I've always loved about this symphony, mostly as a result of some unusual phrasing and balances with which I'm not familiar. There's also an interesting use of the cymbals which I've not heard before.  The marvelous brass "hunting calls" of the Scherzo third movement sound tersely rendered in relation to my favorite performances and many other sections sound clipped; if there's any real disappointment with the performance, it's with this movement. However, climaxes throughout are built and consummated with stylish aplomb; the finale is brought home in a convincing fashion, even if it's not as transcendent as this listener may have hoped for.

This new remastering (I've not heard previous releases) presents a most listenable soundstage with nary a pop nor scratch to be heard, only some unobtrusive coughs and movements from the audience.  Considering the recording date and live venue (Oct. 22, 1951 in Stuttgart), I was pleasantly surprised in this regard.

Langgaard: Music of the Spheres; Four Tone Pictures
Gitta-Maria Sjöberg, soprano
Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra & Choir
Gennady Rozhdestvensky, cond.
CHANDOS
This was another recommendation to broaden my musical horizons.  I won't dwell on 20th century Danish composer Rued Langgaard's supposed bitterness toward his lifetime lack of renown and the success of his contemporary Carl Nielsen, only that it's an interesting footnote for the modern listener.  I will say that Langgaard's Music of the Spheres from 1918 is an incredibly exhilarating indulgence, redolent of those "celestial" musical qualities one would think of being more akin to the post-WWII period and not necessarily The Great War -- one is immediately reminded of Ligeti's similar musical utterances of nearly fifty years hence, moreso than anything from Holst's The Planets.  In fact, the CD notes by Bendt Viinholt Nielsen do bring up how Ligeti, upon first viewing the score while serving on a jury in 1968, openly stated how his and Langgaard's compositional techniques were so similar as to suggest that he might be a Langgaard imitator!  We hear otherworldly tone clusters, predominately from the high strings and winds, as well as a colorful plethora of orchestral sounds from brass to organ to bells, often accented and offset by the omnipresent tympani.  One can't help but think that Langgaard, in composing this work, was thinking well ahead of his time.

Toward the latter third of the roughly thirty-five minute work, whose many brief parts are given fanciful titles such as "Like Sunbeams on a Coffin Decorated with Sweet-Smelling Flowers", is the appearance of near nonsensical vocals from soprano and then chorus melodically repeating "Do re mi fa sol la-a!" as if we're being treated to a Freudian glimpse at composer's block. (Ever see Jack Nicholson at the typewriter in The Shining?)  After a romantically tinged bit from the soprano, beautifully sung, the work ends with an exciting and colorful orchestral and choral apocalypse!  One is hard-pressed to decipher an intelligible program in all this; however, I like how it's described in the notes as "a singular musical concept in which sound and space are in focus on behalf of a logical or organic form"...whatever in the cosmos that may mean!  In any case, as I stated earlier, it's an indulgence, but it's still exhilirating and often mindblowing fun!

The Four Tone Pictures, dating from around the same period, are songs for soprano and orchestra which come from a different, more earthbound Late Romantic compositional realm, expressively sung by Sjöberg.  They each carry titles and lyrics summoning nature and are thoroughly delightful.  The entire CD is rendered in Chandos' finest, most vivid recorded sound.